ALMOST VERY DEAD

ALMOST VERY DEAD

BLAIR: You paint a picture of the after-death state in which everyone is happy and loves one another. How and Why? You say we create ourself in the physical world “second by second, and thought by thought, and emotion by emotion”. You also state we take EVERYTHING with us except our physical body. Therefore we must take emotions such as jealousy and hatred and rage and prejudice and greed. You seem to call all that “love”. God by whatever name surely plays His cards close to His chest.

DES: (1) The “Group” we merge with after death is an emotional organism, comprising a large number of people with shared experiences from one past lifetime or another. They belong together because of positive emotions, love in other words, imported from the past. One Group shades into another, and there are Groups within Groups within Groups; intimate family Groups, huge extended family-friend Groups, others with an ethnic identity, a national identity, and special-interest identities. We all gravitate naturally to where we belong, without the hint of resentment or competition. We are all immersed in love because that is the natural order in the absence of negative energy. Almost invariably we are in close proximity to grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren. That is where the emotions are strongest. The far reaches of the Group are made up of links that are remote or indirect, and owe more to other Groups. Beyond that nothing can be discerned at the personal level. It follows that every individual in spirit carries a UNIQUE emotional identity, formed by relationships and Groups and Sub-Groups; all flowing with a harmony and emotional intensity unrecognizable on the physical plane.

(2) What happens to the negative energy Blair talks about? Various types and degrees of negativity are inescapably encountered and incorporated and then expressed in physical, simply because that is what physicality offers, it is what physicality IS. In order to survive, we are driven to navigate a torturous route between two emotional poles, in a world which is polarised at every level: sub-atomic, molecular, physical, philosophical, religious…

THE BEDROCK AND FOUNDATION OF THE HUMAN SPECIES ARE BUILT AT THE PHYSICAL LEVEL, AND INFINITELY EXPLORED AND HONED IN THE AFTER-DEATH STATE. IN PHYSICAL WE CREATE BECAUSE OF THE PRESENCE OF NEGATIVE ENERGY, AND IN SPIRIT WE CREATE BECAUSE OF THE ABSENCE OF NEGATIVE ENERGY.

(3) It should be remembered that when we die we disengage from negative energy only slowly, as we “move away”. During this process we are neither on one plane nor the other, and can temporarily be dragged back by intense negative preoccupations. This phenomenon is referred to as “being earthbound”.

Blair suggests that “God… plays His cards close to His chest” (He is largely unknowable). Perhaps there are as many Gods as there are human beings, because we all have our own exclusive interpretation or perspective or model – shaped by our emotional need to understand ourself and the universe.

Desmond Long was born during the Second World War in Blenheim, New Zealand, where his father was stationed before being posted to Guadalcanal with the American Air Force. The following 17 years were spent in the tiny village of Murchison, perched in the northern reaches of the Southern Alps, where he was the oldest child of the generation. Five years as a trainee in the Royal New Zealand Navy followed. Then came a career in marine electronics, which segued into psychology and eventually a fulltime practice.
Desmond has always “played with words”, and had a number of short stories published in the United States and Australia.
He describes himself as an open-minded skeptic who respects every viewpoint, but goes on to honor the belief structure he most admires.
“BEYOND” was previously published as The Littlest Crusade.